The influence of social status and ethnicity on diet in mediaeval Tallinn as seen through stable isotope analysis

© 2016, Estonian Academy Publishers. All rights reserved. Food encodes social and cultural values and has an important role to play in defining identities. In mixed populations, diet can be used to distinguish between ‘us’ and ‘them’. This study investigates the extent to which the inhabitants of mediaeval Tallinn, an important trading centre, used food to maintain distinct identities. Human skeletal material was selected from four mediaeval cemeteries in Tallinn, chosen to represent different groups within Tallinn’s society, likely including foreign merchants, foreign monks, urban Estonians and low-status Estonians, and from a nearby rural site, Kaberla, for comparative purposes. The individuals were investigated using carbon, nitrogen and oxygen stable isotope analysis. The results indicate that while all analysed individuals consumed diets based on C3 plants and animals consuming C3 plants, some individuals also consumed small amounts of C4 plants (likely millet) or seafood. C4 plants were consumed by the urban residents buried at the Church of the Holy Spirit and one or two individuals from Sulevimägi. It is thought that millet was an imported food consumed by the middle class. Marine foods were consumed by the individuals at St Catherine’s Church. These individuals were also identified as migrants and were likely either monks or foreign merchants. The results suggest that in some cases the people of Tallinn did use food as a means of maintaining social statuses and potentially ethnicities. Only one individual (LTL06) was identified as having had a significant change in diet during life, with the inclusion of marine foods in adulthood. This may indicate that this individual attained or aspired to higher social status during life and adhered to Christian dietary customs.We would like to thank Liina Maldre for her help with the animal remains and Raili Allmäe for their help with the human remains, also Mare Aun for consultations about Kaberla cemetery and Kaire Tooming for consultations about Pühavaimu cemetery. The authors would also like to thank Ligia Trombetta-Lima, Catherine Kneale and James Rolfe (University of Cambridge) for their help with isotopic sample analysis. Emma Lightfoot would like to thank Darwin College, University of Cambridge for financial support. The article was written by the support of research projects of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Science (ETF9405 and IUT18-8)

The World Social Situation: Development Challenges at the Outset of a New Century

World social development has arrived at a critical turning point. Economically advanced nations have made significant progress toward meeting the basic needs of their populations; however, the majority of developing countries have not. Problems of rapid population growth, failing economies, famine, environmental devastation, majority-minority group conflicts, increasing militarization, among others, are pushing many developing nations toward the brink of social chaos. This paper focuses on worldwide development trends for the 40-year period 1970-2009. Particular attention is given to the disparities in development that exist between the world’s “rich” and “poor” countries as well as the global forces that sustain these disparities. The paper also discusses more recent positive trends occurring within the world’s “socially least developed countries” (SLDCs), especially those located in Africa and Asia, in reducing poverty and in promoting improved quality of life for increasing numbers of their populations

Late-Medieval Horse Remains at Cesis Castle, Latvia, and the Teutonic Order's Equestrian Resources in Livonia

EXCAVATIONS AT the castle complex of Cēsis, Latvia, uncovered an unusual find of large quantities of horse bones, some of which were partially articulated, along with equestrian equipment. These were associated with a destroyed building at the edge of the southern outer bailey. The horses included large males, most probably stallions, and pathology on several of the recovered vertebrae suggests these individuals had been used for riding. The size of the horses was within the range for medieval war horses, and the associated tack also pointed to prestigious riding animals. Radiocarbon dating of the bones placed them firmly within the Teutonic Order's period of rule. We conclude here that these horses fulfilled a military role in the final decades of the Teutonic Order’s rule in Livonia in the late 15th/early 16th century and that the better-known equestrian culture of late-medieval Prussia was comparable in character, if not in scale, to that in Livonia

Disturbance and the resilience of coupled carbon and nitrogen cycling in a north temperate forest

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/96419/1/jgrg864.pd

REVIEWS: RIIA LINNAARHEOLOOGIA IDA JA LÄÄNE VAHEL

The Hansa Town Riga as Mediator between East and West. Proceedings of an International Scientific Conference Dedicated to 70 Years of Archaeological Research in Riga. Held in Riga, Latvia, on 23â25 September 2008. Institute of the History of Latvia Publishers, RÄ«ga, 2009. 231 lk